In article , Robert E A
Harvey writes
Mike Crossland wrote:
"Robert E A Harvey" wrote:
I'e got this delicate little tree in the garden. At 25 years approx
it has stretched up to about 6m tall, and is about 150mm diameter at
the bole. It has tri-lobed divided leaves with pointed tips, and a
smooth, non-waxy surface.
---
Robert,
Check out Voss's Laburnum.

Thanks, and a fair fit on the leaves - mine is not hairy, however. nor is
the flowering anything like.
It's puzzled me this one for years.



Could you try a closeup of the flowers? (Cut off an inflorescence and
photograph against a sheet of paper?) There's not many ternate-leaved
trees commonly planted in Britain, and none of the ones in Mitchell
looked a better match foliage-wise that laburnum. (Except as far as I
could tell, your tree as opposite-leaved foliage, and laburnum is
alternate-leaved.)

There's a number of ternate-leaved maples. (The 'catkins' look as if
they could be composed of immature maple fruits.) I don't think it's the
paper-bark maple, Acer griseum, as that has distinctive bark, and
distinct side-lobes to the basal leaflets. The rough-barked maple, Acer
triflorum, also has peeling bark and side-lobes to the basal leaflets.
The other two ternate-leaved maples in Mitchell are the Nikko maple,
Acer nikoense, and the vine-leaved maple, Acer cissifolium. (Also, all
these flower in May, so we wouldn't be expecting to see immature fruits
at this time.)

The population of Acer campestre on the ridge between Portishead and
Clevedon is also ternate-leaved, but it's clearly not this, as Acer
campestre bears its flowers erect.

Other trees with ternate leaves are some hickories (Carya) and common
walnut (Juglans regia) - there are alternate-leaved, and not (at least
usually) consistently ternate.

BTW, it's possible to perform a considerable lossy compression of your
images with limited loss of quality.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley